Boston City Council Vice President Brian Worrell is calling for increased police patrols in Dorchester and Mattapan, according to leaked letters obtained by NBC10 Boston, after recent gun violence traumatized people in his district.
Two men were shot in broad daylight at a barbershop in Dorchester on Labor Day and another man was killed on the same street the week before. Not long after, Worrell emailed his constituents for their support and drafted a letter to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox asking them to re-examine staffing levels across the city.
“This is a push to get more visibility in our business districts, which are transportation hubs,” Worrell told NBC10 Boston Wednesday. “We just want to make sure the police department has some sort of visibility and are building relationships within the communities and providing a sense of security with the recent incidents.”
Data from Worrell’s office shows precincts B-3 and C-11 had the same staffing levels as Back Bay and the South End last year but four times the number of recovered firearms. In 2023, police recovered 152 firearms in both B-3 and C-11, while just 37 were found in D-4, but staffing levels for the districts ranged from 127-144 in all three.
“I believe that there needs to be a data-driven approach to the deployment of police officers across the city and that should be based on gun-related firearm arrests, gun violence activity,” Worrell said. “What this would provide is that sense of security.”
Meanwhile, Boston police data shows a slight decline in violent crimes like homicide, rape and assault over the last year. In B-3, there were 330 incidents in 2023 compared to 319 in 2024, and in C-11, there were 350 incidents in 2023 compared to 344 in 2024.
“We’re at the lowest levels ever reported of gun violence and shootings and crime overall,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said. “Every single day they get the numbers back and every couple times a month the command staff, commissioner and all the captains across the city meet to analyze what the trends are.”
The Boston City Council will discuss a separate request to increase police staffing levels overall at a hearing Thursday.
